Truth Alert!

It's happened again readers, our newspapers are publishing items that reveal some truths about the lives that many students who go to CPS experience.

Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington writes:

In a new published study, Dr. Bell and a colleague examined 611 patients at a family medical clinic on the South Side. They identified 237 as "having profiles consistent with neurobehavioral disorders associated with prenatal alcohol exposure." That's 39%.

Washington goes on to report the additional findings by Dr. Bell and his colleagues. Those affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome often have explosive tempers, bad judgement, and "they are doing stuff that doesn't make sense. Explosive violence."

Some other unpleasant realities that Dr. Bell has observed:

• Black communities are saturated with liquor stores.
• Black women have high rates of unplanned pregnancies.
• Women drink unknowingly during pregnancy.
• Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome often go undiagnosed.

As Washington points out, these observations are difficult to hear, but a place to start. This would also be a problem which could be described as systemic, intractable, and an issue which contributes to the generational poverty urban students experience. 

These students are likely also some of the same who experience violence on a regular basis. Despite students with explosive tempers, impulsivity, and poor judgement, these students are expected to sit through hours of tests, and additional reform-y hoops as put forth by CPS.

 WCT wonders where in Noble Street's mission of, "scholarship, discipline, and honor...to lead exemplary lives and serve as a catalyst for education reform in Chicago," the school addresses this. Wait, they don't. Neighborhood schools, currently starved of resources and funding, are expected to not only address issues like these, but reverse them.